Ebay Sellers Hike Prices for Sold-Out Chromecast by 700+%

[1]With a lot of people scrambling to get Google‘s (GOOG[2]) latest technological toy, prices on a popular auction website have gone straight through the roof[3].

The new Chromecast TV dongle retails for $35. But with the current batch of the tiny streaming media device already sold out and future batches backordered, sellers on eBay (EBAY[4]) are demanding hefty prices from buyers who just have to have the device right now, ComputerWorld notes.

An instant hit, the device sold out within 24 hours of release — so fast that Google was forced to cancel a promotion offering three months of free Netflix (NFLX[5]) service initially included with the Chromecast.

Frantic buyers can choose among over 130 separate eBay listings for the Chromecast. Some sellers are charging up to $300 for the device, a 757% price hike.

The Chromecast entered the already-crowded media streaming device market[6] earlier this week. Plugging into a TV’s HDMI port, the dongle allows users to stream video and music from a variety of sources, including mobile devices.